"I think we really went into the season with an open mind," Perticari said. "We had a lot of different plans for this year, not just in the water but also out of the water."

For the quick success, outside thinking and leading the Blue Streaks to its first outright Skyland Conference Raritan Division title, Perticari is The Express-Times 2012 Swimming Coach of the Year.

"We unfortunately were faced with a big challenge of losing a day in the water during the week and we used that as a plus to work out outside of the water," Perticari said. "You can only do so much in the water as far as building strength. We really put an emphasis on the out-of-water workouts."

The Blue Streaks' out of the pool regimen included plyometrics, cardio and core workouts.

Perticari said much of her success comes from her fellow coaches and her athletes following their instructions.

"The kids trust us," said Perticari, a 2000 Warren Hills graduate and former standout swimmer for the Blue Streaks. "They trust we know what we are doing. Some of these kids I have been coaching since they were younger and before they were in high school. They know me, they know my teaching style. If they didn't know my teaching style, I had to adapt to them."

Even with those changes, what was most important to Perticari was that the team continued to have fun and enjoy the sport.

"We had a lot of fun doing everything this year, and I think that's what a lot of people miss sometimes," Perticari said. "You can work them to the core, you can work them until they can't go any further, but unless they are having fun they are not going to want to do much more. If they can work hard and have fun doing it, it's just that much better. They will want to come to practice and will want to work harder and they see the results in the pool and they will have more fun. There wasn't a single meet we were not having a blast."

Warren Hills finished the season 9-1 with its loss coming to Hillsborough. While the Blue Streaks were outnumbered by the Raiders, they still spent the meet learning and laughing.

"Even when we lost to Hillsborough, which was our only loss of the season, even when we were getting destroyed, we were having a good time," Perticari said. "You could see them looking over at us like, what are we missing here? We always had smiles, even the day when we won the conference, we didn't do a huge celebration. We were really happy and humble about it because the team has come so far."

Perticari was a swimmer growing up and got into coaching when she was just 16. Belvidere didn't have a pool but there were several people who were interested in forming a summer swim team. Perticari's mother got 13 people together who were interested. They practiced and Perticari started to help coach along with her mom. Slowly more and more people joined the team. When she was 16 she officially became an assistant coach since she was already helping and continued her coaching career from there.

"Fay has been a very motivating coach," senior captain Troy Balog said. "She always pushes us to our full potential. She has tried a lot of new stuff that seemed to work out well for us. She was a swimmer herself and she wanted us to have the same success as she had and are happy we could reward her by having a great season."